Starting in January 2025 and finishing in fall 2025, phase two — which is to convert the culinary classrooms in the K-building into two Science Labs — will start after the full completion of phase one and finish in fall 2025. This construction plan that began in the fall of 2022 included a major modernization of the administration office, cafeteria and exterior and interior dining halls. The A-building will house administration facilities, a nurse’s office, a multi-purpose room for teacher meetings and additional eating areas. The B-building will feature a Design Studio and classrooms and a kitchen for Culinary Arts.

With the new administration office’s “court- yard-like entrance”, Senior Construction Manager Mohammed Sedqi explains that its location was most suitable for parents’ and visitors’ way finding and staffs’ supervision.

“The best architecture is when you don’t need a sign saying ‘admin is there’. You want to just arrive at the parking lot and clearly know where it is,” he said. “The entrance is facing the parking lot, so it’s this new face to the school entrance that helps promote the sense of place at the school.”

The renovation work includes adding 8,000 square feet to the existing 12,000 square feet of building. During the process, the crew tackled challenges with remodeling an existing building, such as the absence of utilities lines
underground and older, incorrect spokes. Sedqi also said that potential setbacks in regulatory food space checkpoints will not be a major problem, ensuring a timely debut.

PAUSD Facilities & Construction Director Eric Holm describes that many tasks, including installations of electrical wiring, landscaping and planters, were allocated to start between the end of school and start of summer school to
prevent disruption during the school year. The construction team planned to repave the streets and repaint the main exit when summer school ended on July 19.

“We try to have the least amount of disturbance to students, so we use the summer to work outside of the fences of the building construction site,” he said. “So to connect the entire power of the buildings, we had to shut down the entire campus for three days.”

Sedqi expresses a similar sentiment.

“Because of the first winter storm that hit us hard, we had a challenging period with a mud pit in construction for months,” he said. “Otherwise, summer is when we make a lot of progress without things that hit a delay like interrupting school activity.”

Holm explains that unexpected changes and additions from the original plan range from environmental concern to improved technology.

“An example is that the contractor’s access to get things would end up damaging the trees because the building was too close, so we’ve made some modifications there,” he said. “We’ve also changed as a district. Gunn is one of our test cases for a new security system and camera system inside, so that all the doors are Access Reader on this building, and you won’t need any keys to get into the building.”

For future projects, Gunn may consider cross-laminated timber, a material built from sustainably harvested big wood lumber, as used in rebuilding Herbert Hoover Elementary School in March of 2024.

“The cool thing about mass timber, which is cross laminated timber, is it being the new zero carbon footprint technology,” Sedqi said. “It’s a really good direction, and if that is successful, that might be a prototype for future projects.”

For Sedqi, whose role in construction stemmed from a childhood of building Legos, he finds it rewarding to be able to connect with students and teachers, like food services and CTE Instructional Lead and culinary science teacher Cindy Peters, to execute campus facilities or that elevate each part of the community.

“I’m proud of the culinary classroom and kitchen because I have had a lot of meetings with Cindy. If you’ve been to her class, she’s been there for roughly 20 to 30 years and it’s outdated. So I like when she’s on site and says, ‘I’m happy about this. I want to teach here.’” he said. “It’s for her and for all the students. You’re gonna get some place that is
like cooking in a place that looks like a five star restaurant. It feels really good.”

While construction is continual with interior design efforts such as installing flooring, ceiling lights and kitchen equipment; painting the walls; and putting in attack panels, Assistant Principal of Facilities Dr. Mycal Hixon points out that the administration is focused on finding ways to better students’
environments and fulfill their needs.

“It allows us to continue to support students in the best, most efficient and safest way possible,” he said. “It finally allows for a cafeteria dining space during rainy day weather and is air conditioned for students to have lunch. That definitely means a lot for Gunn, while meeting all the measures and safety disciplines as best as administration
can.”

The first two alarms were set off by some kind of smoke — potentially from foods like popcorn that have activated the sensors in the past — while the cause of the third alarm remains unknown. According to Assistant Principal of Safety Dr. Mycal Hixon, the new fire panel — which was installed over the summer to provide a safety upgrade to the previous out-of-date system — is being investigated as the potential cause.

“We’re trying to work with the fire department to see if this is either a faulty alarm, a box that’s going off or if there was an actual pull,” he said. “Unlike the other days, we weren’t able to identify smoke (on Thursday), so we’re really trying to figure it out.”

These interruptions, even with the adjusted bell schedule accommodations on Thursday, impacted both student agenda and instruction time. According to history teacher Laurel Howard, she’s had to adapt to the incident in order to ensure her periods learn the same amount of content at the same time.

“(The fire alarms are) impacting my class periods in different ways,” she said. “If I’m trying to keep my classes on track with each other and one has a 20-minute evacuation, then I have to make adjustments so (the delayed class) doesn’t fall too far behind.”

Although a definitive reason for the three alarms this week is still under investigation, administration is considering whether they may be due to a potential smoking problem on campus. Hixon explained that possible administration responses may include increased student resources, increased campus security and utilizing camera footage.

“We want to make sure that we can accurately identify what the problem is so we can accurately work together collaboratively to come up with solutions,” he said. “If it’s going off because somebody’s intentionally smoking in the bathroom, that’s one thing. If there’s somebody actually doing something, we want to find what support we can provide them to help them understand that (it) is not okay.”

For English teacher Diane Ichikawa, the ambiguity of the faulty fire alarms’ has added to the confusion that undermines the trustworthiness of the campus’s safety systems.

“Because we get so many (fire alarms) that end up being either false or people perceive them to be false, they don’t take an actual emergency (seriously),” she said. “It’s kind of a ‘boy-cried-wolf’ situation.”

In response to the lack of information available, Hixon highlighted the administration’s efforts to rectify these issues.

“We will work with the company that installed the fire alarms to ensure we are trained on everything it does and why,” he wrote in an email. “We will also be more alert to our surroundings, making sure that if we see something, we say something so that we can safely get things taken care of. We will also be getting an updated security camera system.”

However, despite the disturbances these fire alarms have caused, Science Instructional Lead Dr. Heather Mellows emphasized the importance of taking evacuation seriously.

“(Evacuating) is still important because we don’t know which alarms are real,” Mellows said. “And as a science teacher, I know that sometimes the fire alarm is because of what happens in my room, and I need it to be real when that happens.”

Currently, the evacuation drill scheduled for Thursday, August 29 will continue as planned.

“I am sure students have done a great job, but just in case, there are still a few things that we need to work on and (the drill) gives us that opportunity to do it,” Hixon said.

—Written by Kaylee Cheng, Anne Dong, Sylvie Nguyen and Ya-An Xue. Additional reporting by Gwen Domine.

Just like the typical grocery store item that has increased in price, inflation has triggered a rise in construction costs in Palo Alto. According to PAUSD Facilities and Construction Director Eric Holm, each square foot of commercial construction costs $700 to $1100. Additional soft costs for aspects of renovations and constructions such as designs, furniture planning and permit fees can add more than 30 to the construction’s non-interior costs. Classrooms range from 900 to 1,100 square feet, and the average cost of building a classroom has increased from $750,000 to $1.5 million in the last ten years, with projections estimating the total cost to reach around $2 million by 2028. In PAUSD, construction receives its budget from government bonds which are proposed, voted on and authorized by members of the Bond Citizens’ Oversight committee. According to the PAUSD website, The Measure A Strong Schools Bond and Measure Z Strong Schools Bond, approved by Palo Alto voters in 2008 and 2018 respectively, authorized $378 million and $460 million respectively for the district’s construction use. The amount requested is calculated with potential price growth in mind, and is utilized towards improvement in the district.

While supply chain and worker shortages due to COVID-19 have factored into this price increase, according to Holm, one of the main contributors to the total cost is the safety requirements that must be incorporated into every classroom. School buildings are considered tier two emergency services buildings, second only to hospitals, fire departments and other health care facilities. This status makes the school building’s safety and accessibility a priority. “In an earthquake or natural disaster, those buildings are the most critical, but just a hair below (them are) schools,” Holm said. “The state mandates parents to send their kids to school, (so the district) has to make the school safe for kids.” PAUSD is responsible for following certain mandates that ensure student safety. School buildings are under
the authority of the Division of the State Architect, which operates under strict structural and accessibility requirements such as compliance with the American Disabilities Act, the installation of fire safety devices and air filtration.

The construction team goes through many inspections to make sure they are following regulations. According to Hixon, these examinations have not interfered or slowed down the project’s progress.

“We adhere to all state and city guidelines for construction safety,” he said. “The experience has been great so far.”

The necessity of modern technology is another large cost in classroom construction projects. As classrooms continue
to modernize, they need to be equipped with the best materials. While it is an expense, digital projection boards and enhanced audio systems are essential to supporting teacher and student education experiences.

“Just putting a whiteboard up on the wall is a lot cheaper than putting a massive 72-inch or 60-inch TV and having all the controls to run it,” Holm said. “But all of that improves the educational experience.”

As parts of a building become detrimental to student safety, they must be replaced or repaired. These upgrades include gas phase- outs, electrical service upgrades, repairing aging infrastructure, installing air filtration and temperature control technology.

The new A-B-K building has an estimated budget of $27.5 million and includes even more extensive and specialized technology than Gunn’s other recent buildings, specifically food related technology. The project includes a complete renovation of the administrative building, as well as new food services facilities and a culinary arts classroom. Holm says that the large scope of the project contributes to its hefty price.

“The two factors (considered) are the size of the space and the number of modifications,” Holm said. “Similar to a house, a big house costs less on a per square foot basis than a small house because the base costs of construction are amortized over the entire space. A small kitchen or bathroom build or renovation will cost significantly more on a per square foot basis than a bedroom modification.”

According to Holm, general classrooms are the least expensive, followed by specialty classrooms such as art and music. This is because they are typically larger and have specialized modifications and casework. A step above are the Career Technical Education and science classrooms as they require extensive customization and equipment such as gas filtration systems. Administrative offices tend to cost even more due to the large number of interior walls and specialized spaces. Finally, highly specialized spaces like food service are the most expensive. This is reflected in the construction of the A-B-K building, as the food service section is the most expensive per square foot due to the required installation of stoves, filtration and other pieces of technology required for cooking.

A common misconception, especially about specialized classrooms, Holm noted, is the size of each classroom.Rather than a bedroom or living space, classrooms tend to be the size of a small house or apartment.

“A classroom is 1000 square feet,” he said. “That’s the  size of a small house. A 900 square foot house is selling for $1.8 million (in Palo Alto). So, by that metric, (a small) house is the same size (as a) classroom.”

Many displaced classes have relocated to portable classrooms — a part of Gunn’s campus known as the Village
— including history and less lab-based sciences that do not rely on any underground resources, such as gas lines, to run their classes. However, despite portables being almost 40% the price of a classroom, they are only temporary solutions. “A relocatable classroom is designed to be used on a temporary basis,” Holm said. “Their general life is about 20 years. They might be used longer than 20 years, but not without having problems.”

Problems may involve a leak or general wear-and-tear of materials. Portable classrooms, which can range from $50 to $150 per square foot, have thinner walls and different logistics for heating and cooling. In contrast to a physical classroom where everything is designed to circulate air in a balanced manner, portables occasionally have issues with temperature regulation, especially when smaller units are stacked together.

“The roofing is not as robust,” Holm said. “They’re not as waterproof, (and) the windows aren’t as nice. They’re a cheaper building, but then there’s a whole bunch of ways about how you install them. That changes the cost too, if they’re on a concrete foundation (versus on) a wood foundation.”

Another contributor to the cost of facilities are the constant upgrades required to ensure safety. Holm noted that if a construction team doesn’t update an establishment after it is built, they are not obligated to keep making changes. However, once they do, they must keep updating it and the other buildings around it, whether it means smartboards, alarms, HVAC systems or full renovations.

Member of the Gunn Facilities Committee Laurie Pennington says that need, impact and safety are taken into account to determine the priority of construction projects, which then determines the typical order in which projects are carried through and how they allocate funds.

“The front office building for instance, was one of the oldest buildings on campus,” she said. “It had no ventilation whatsoever. It wasn’t going to be possible just to put ventilation in that building (since) the walls were old and everything was bad.”

With the constant need to improve the quality of buildings and equipment, Holm believes that a major aspect of a successful construction project is finding an optimal time frame for each project.

“We can do a mid-year (transfer), but that’s really stressful for the teachers and students because the new room is not set up,” he said. “In a history class, (teachers might put up) historical posters, or literary (posters in an English class).(And if classes are moved,) a lot of those teacher touches are kind of invisible.”

Pennington realized that her years of experience at Gunn has allowed her to help make decisions about temporary classrooms and lodgings, which have been useful for minimizing disruption in the past.

“I’ve been here a long time,” she said. “I said, ‘If Culinary Arts is going to move out, why don’t we just put (them) back to the science (building) because all the gas is still all underneath there?’ And they hadn’t thought about that. So, it’s nice to have people that have been around for a while or people that are concerned about different departments.”

Construction has proven itself to be a far more complex process than just slotting bricks together. It takes months of planning, pitching and budgeting to finally spur a project into action. While a large part of construction cost has to do with the economy itself, directors and committees continue to strategize effective financial resource utilizations when it comes to a project that requires such a large sum of money.

Having observed the campus construction since she moved to Gunn, Principal Dr. Wendy Stratton feels the A-B-K project, set to end in December, has been worth all the time and resources and is grateful for the construction team and their work.

“I have a lot of confidence in our construction team,” Stratton said. “They’ve been really good about being communicative and inclusive. I’m really looking forward to the move and the energy that move will bring and that feeling of new beginnings.”

Gallery • 4 Photos

Vin Bhat

Students leave Gunn following the shelter-in-place mandate.

At 1:58 p.m. today, a message on the intercom instructed students to begin sheltering in place. This mandate lasted for one hour and 48 minutes, eventually lifted by an intercom announcement at 3:46 p.m. 

According to the City of Palo Alto Police Calls for Service map, 1:51 p.m. calls reported a man with a gun and a 1:53 p.m. call reported a bomb threat, both near Georgia Avenue and Miranda Avenue. The City of Palo Alto has now confirmed that these calls were hoaxes — the first two, at 1:51 p.m., stated they had seen a teen boy carrying a rifle and two pipe bombs walking toward Gunn, and that a man in his twenties wearing body armor and carrying a rifle was approaching the school. The 1:53 p.m. call came from a man who said he was approaching Gunn with a bomb. 

This initial shelter-in-place announcement was reiterated at 2:01 p.m., emphasizing that the situation was not a drill. Two more announcements at 2:31 p.m. and 3:06 p.m. reminded students to keep sheltering.

At 2:15 p.m., Principal Dr. Wendy Stratton posted a Schoology update detailing that there was an unconfirmed threat on campus, and that the Palo Alto Police Department was present and partnering with admin to provide more updates. 

A PAPD thread on X, formerly known as Twitter, posted at 2:35 p.m. said that school officials had also instructed students to shelter in place at Fletcher Middle School as a precautionary measure. Police also confirmed that all students and staff on Gunn’s campus were safe.

At 2:48 p.m., staff members received an email from Stratton stating that students would be released from school at 3:50 p.m. and would be permitted to transport themselves home or be picked up by a parent. All after-school events, including athletics, were canceled. Parents received the same information via ParentSquare at 2:54 p.m., and students were notified via Schoology soon after.

At 3:09 p.m., PAPD noted in the same X thread that they had “uncovered no evidence to corroborate that any actual threat exists,” but that they would continue the shelter-in-place while investigating. Half an hour later, they announced the end of their search.

Police were still present on campus as students were dismissed. According to an officer who wished to remain anonymous due to the pending investigation, the lockdown and search went according to police and PAUSD protocol. However, there is still an open, criminal investigation. According to a 4:46 p.m. Schoology post from Stratton, a police presence will remain on campus throughout the week, and there will be additional staff members available at the Wellness Center. 

Police confirmed that Orinda’s Miramonte High School, located just east of Oakland, was also in lockdown as of 3 p.m., but police at Gunn stated that there was no known connection between the two incidents.

According to Gunn Safety Committee member Vin Bhat, Gunn’s safety committee will be convening after school on April 23, and the districtwide committee will be meeting on Wednesday, April 24. Gunn administrators said they could not comment until Tuesday, April 23.

According to Senior Construction Project Manager Mohammed Sedqi, workers were connecting the overflow for bioswales, or runoff channels, with a storm drain when they hit the main water line. To fix the leak, workers had to first drain out the water in the pipes and then put a patch over the break. After the pipes were “purged” of air bubbles, the line was functional again. 

Junior Hannah Kim realized the water supply had been shut off following a trip to the restroom during her Advanced Placement Statistics class. 

“Me and my friend went to the bathroom and we realized that some of the water in the toilets looked a little unclear, so we tried flushing them and they didn’t flush,” she said. 

By 12 p.m., three portable toilets had been placed near Spangenberg Theater and water bottles had been placed in the lunch lines in front of the Student Activities Center. According to PAUSD Director of Facilities and Construction Eric Holm, district officials picked up hand sinks from Fletcher Middle School and water from Costco for students to use. Thirty more portable toilets were ordered, but only arrived once the water had been turned on again. 

Around 1:30 p.m., water spouts on building walls turned on, and toilets around campus were flushed. According to PAUSD Maintenance Supervisor Ken Culp, this preliminary reopening of the water supply “purged” the emptied water lines of air, preventing the formation of air bubbles when students and staff finally used the facilities. Following this “purge,” the water lines were fully operational, and an announcement at 1:37 p.m. notified students that the water was back on. 

The restoration process took a little over two hours in total, occurring much more rapidly than in September 2021, when the main water line was hit during parking-lot construction. Holm noted that this project’s contractors, Sausal Corporation, were more prepared to deal with the situation than Redgwick Corporation, the contractor used for the parking-lot project: In 2021, students were sent home from school early while the construction team attempted to address the issue. 

Nevertheless, students — including sophomore Rayla Chen — found the line break frustrating. 

“I just walked into the building bathroom during second period, and then all of a sudden, it said ‘out of order,’ and I didn’t know where else to go to go use the bathroom or fill up my water bottle, so that was a bit of a hassle,” she said. 

Moving forward, construction will continue as planned. According to PAUSD Operations Supervisor Brett Larson, preventative action is not necessary. 

“This is unforeseen, and that happens from time to time, and you can’t control the unforeseen,” he said.

—Written by Amann Mahajan. Additional reporting by Kaylee Cheng

The decision comes after several false alarms in the past year, caused by the current sensors’ susceptibility to hot weather. According to Assistant Principal of Safety Dr. Mycal Hixon, the new fire alarm system is expected to be installed by August 2024.

Though it will need to be modified on a site-by-site basis, the new system will serve as the district-wide standard across all campuses, according to PAUSD Director of Facilities and Construction Eric Holm. With the current fire alarm system, the loss of power in a single building can prevent other buildings’ fire alarms from working.

“Most fire alarms are wired in series, building by building, so when you do work on a building, everything downstream of that building goes offline,” Holm said. “The new system works on building a node model so each building communicates directly with the main control panel. That way, if any building goes offline, all the other buildings can stay online.”

The new alarms will have a greater tolerance for high temperatures. According to Holm, Gunn’s heat and smoke sensors are in buildings’ warm attic spaces, so on hot days, the current sensors have falsely detected fire. The new sensors will have a higher heat index, so these false alarms will occur less frequently.

According to Hixon, the installation will primarily take place on the weekends and after school to minimize disruption of classroom time.

“We’ll make sure that we communicate (with students) because we’re updating and testing (the alarms), and we want to minimize the negative impact of this project on Gunn students,” he said.